Biweekly Headlines 2023 Sep W4 – Oct 1
“The faster this bear steepener rises, the faster someone goes belly up, the faster everyone recognizes there is no way out other than money printing to save govt bond markets, the faster we get back to the crypto bull market :).” – Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX
Biweekly News Roundup
Bitcoin rose above the $28,500 mark on Oct. 2 to log its highest price in over a month with ETF optimism and seasonality among the reasons behind the gains. October is historically one of Bitcoin’s best months and is often called “Uptober.” BTC’s price has risen by an average of 20.82% in October since 2012. As continued rising bond market yields took a toll on risk assets across the board, the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate surged 8 bps, a fresh 16-year high, BTC price dives 2% on Oct. 6 on US jobs data as Fed rate hike bets heat up. JPMorgan said Ethereum has become more centralized since the Merge and Shanghai upgrades and the increase in staking has reduced the appeal of ether from a yield perspective. Elon Musk first topped The Forbes 400 ranking of the richest people in America in October 2022, worth an estimated $251B. A year later, Musk remains No. 1 on the list, and again he’s worth an estimated $251B. Shares of Nvidia jumped more than 200% as the AI craze pushed Jensen Huang into the top twenty for the first time, making it the biggest gainer on the 2023 Forbes 400 list, up about 216% from last year.
SBF is scheduled for a minimum of 21 court days as part of his criminal trial proceedings, set to occur between October 4 and November 9. The representative and crypto-friendly lawmaker Patrick McHenry has been appointed as interim House Speaker on Oct.4 after the high-profile ousting of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. McHenry also grilled SEC Chair Gensler in his testimony before Congress last week, suggesting he’s attempting to “choke off the digital asset ecosystem.” Brazil is launching its new national identity program powered by blockchain technology. Rio de Janeiro, Goiás and Paraná will be the first states to issue identification documents on-chain. The entire country should be able to issue identity documents through blockchain technology by Nov. 6, reads a decree on Sept. 25. Chainalysis said that Hong Kong dominates in large institutional crypto transactions compared to other Asian regions. Its data shows that 46.8% of Hong Kong’s annual crypto trades were institutional transactions exceeding $10M. The increasingly close relationship between China and Hong Kong, and Hong Kong’s growing status as a crypto hub may signal that the Chinese government is reversing course on digital assets, or at least becoming more open to crypto initiatives. Taiwan aims for crypto law by November. This follows guidelines released on Sept. 26 by Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission that moved to improve cryptocurrency investor protections.
The International Coinbase Exchange said on Oct. 2 that it has obtained a payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Its venture capital arm has also invested in over 15 Web3 startups in the country over the last three years. Earlier, it secured regulatory approval from the financial regulator in Bermuda, and last week, it successfully registered with Spain’s central bank. Bitwise also announced the Ethereum ETF launch on Oct. 2. TXM Group, the largest Canadian exchange, said on Oct. 3 that it will soon start Bitcoin futures trading. Binance’s spot market share fell for a seventh consecutive month in September 2023 amid ongoing regulatory issues in the US. The report indicates that Binance’s spot market share declined from 38.5% in August to 34.3% in September. By January 2023, it had previously reached a peak of 55.2%. Ripple was granted a license to offer key services in Singapore and the SEC lost a bid to appeal in the Ripple case.
MIT scientist Lex Fridman and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg became the biggest hit with their one-hour “live conversation” in the metaverse world. Google announced that its browser-based AI program, Bard, will be used by Google Assistant devices soon. Despite rock-bottom prices on popular collections, one of the most popular and valuable NFT collections will today debut its Pudgy Toys collection across 2,000 Walmart stores in the U.S. in search of a new audience. The 37xDubai art gallery will be opened to the public later in October, aiming to educate artists and art aficionados on NFTs and the broader Web3 ecosystem through workshops held in the gallery after its official launch. Japanese automobile giant Honda now accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment methods. As the cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve, such pioneering initiatives are set to reshape the financial and commercial landscape, offering new opportunities and possibilities for consumers worldwide.
October 7, 2023